Uh oh...Iraq

[Tank]

To sit back and do nothing would be a huge mistake. So would throwing a large number of troops into this. Action somewhere in the middle is exactly what we should do.

 

figuring out the "somewhere in the middle solution" is the big problem.

 

as someone once said, islam does not want to be reasoned with. it wants to be obeyed. that seems especially true with IS, and that's why there may not be an intermediate solution.

[mtangelsfan]

http://news.msn.com/world/islamic-state-beheads-crucifies-in-push-for-syrias-east

 

IS crucifying and beheading those who oppose it in Syria.

 

Where is the outcry?  Hey Scott, didn't you want to support these guys in Syria?

[Adam]

All you need to know about ISIS is that bin Laden thought they were gnar

 

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/ISIS-was-too-brutal-for-Osama-bin-Laden-letter-reveals-370744

[mtangelsfan]

It's like they aren't even human.  This is a great evil and I'm not using hyperbole.

[Adam]

A remarkable evil. I'm sure some of the African gangs can rival them but I'm not sure it can get more disturbing than ISIS

[Schildog]

the saga continues... wu tang wu tang,

[Lhalo]

Looks like we're finally helping the Kurds.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/11/us-arm-peshmerga-iraq-kurdistan-isis

[TobiasFunke]

Watching that Vice doc, it looks like IS is just a big dude fest. Carpet bomb them with good ol American strippers and see how far IS gets with bewbs in their face.

[Jay]

Hillary Clinton criticizes Obama's foreign policy 'failure'; strongly defends Israel

 

http://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clinton-obama-foreign-policy-isis-gaza-failure-141410915.html

 

----

 

So now we have Obama saying it wasn't his idea to pull out of Iraq.  And Hillary criticizing Obama's foreign policy as if she had nothing to do with it.

[Schildog]

if we didn't only go in there to scratch the back of cheney's friends in the first place. 

[TobiasFunke]

Do you AAAAAALWAYS have to bring up the past Schil?

[Jay]

Imagine if GWB had the balls to ignore all the intelligence reports after 9/11.

 

 

[nate]

Hang on, are you saying that GWB didn't ignore all the intelligence reports?

[mtangelsfan]

I think the US should mind its own f*ing business for once. What have these senseless wars ever accomplished besides killing innocent people and fueling the hate towards the US?

 

For every innocent child killed I imagine 5 new "radical" anti-American militants are created. How would you feel if Russia dropped a bomb on someone they didn't like and killed your children in the process? I don't understand why people over there are not allowed to object to such crimes as we all would object to them here.

 

I suppose you would refrain from helping a woman being raped because you didn't want the rapist's family to be mad at you.

[RallyMo]

Imagine if GWB had the balls to ignore all the intelligence reports after 9/11.

Imagine if you had the balls to not vote for him in 2000.

[TobiasFunke]

Just watched the three Vice episodes. The third one was awesome. Can't wait for the remaining 2.

[Jay]

Imagine if you had the balls to not vote for him in 2000.

 

California went to Gore

[RallyMo]

California went to Gore

I know, but at least you could feel good about not voting for the guy responsible for all this.

[mtangelsfan]

I know, but at least you could feel good about not voting for the guy responsible for all this.

 

ah yes, I mean there is no way it would be like this without the ogre GWB.  I mean it is his fault they are in Syria too, right?

[RallyMo]

ah yes, I mean there is no way it would be like this without the ogre GWB. I mean it is his fault they are in Syria too, right?

Excellent point. Yes?

[mtangelsfan]

false.  It is not his fault they are in Syria.  That is silly.

 

If we are going to go backwards, maybe we should go after whoever put Asaad and Hussein in power.  Or the Shaw of Iran. 

 

It is good to use history to learn and not repeat mistakes but not as a reason for apathy and it certainly provides zero solutions. 

[RallyMo]

It is good to use history to learn and not repeat mistakes...

...and yet here you are on bait that I set out expressly for Jay.

I didn't even have to use the word "Berkeley."

C'mon, man.

[RallyMo]

We should annihilate these ISIS (or whatever they want to call themselves) turds.

[RallyMo]

Or the Shaw of Iran.

Brian or George Bernard?

[Jay]

I think maybe Rally was too young to vote then.

 

I actually voted for McCain in the 2000 California primary, probably would have been the same result though.  If not for those hanging chads in Florida...

 

Many of you might have been too young to remember this but as you can tell from the Hillary clip above, the case for military action was pretty compelling back then.  In hindsight yes it looks like we overreacted but at the time there was broad support for it.

 

There was widespread concern that 9/11 was just the first of who knows how many attacks, that terrorists had their hands on nukes, dirty bombs etc.  The thinking was we had to take the fight to them rather than sit here and wait for the next attack.  Part of the justification of course was WMD, nukes, etc, in Iraq and that was the consensus back then.  Saddam was a sworn enemy of the U.S., he'd made an assassination attempt on GHWB, on and on.  I don't know how many international intelligence organizations, like maybe 16 separate organizations concluded there were WMD.